Relaxed's Outdoor Medical Grow - 2017

[Lester Freeman]

Went ahead and chopped the JD flowers down, she just wasn't really growing anymore. In term of aesthetics it was definitely successful, but in terms of proper bud production, a failure. After running this strain through the winter for 2 years now I know it's not a winter strain, but boy she looked good. Can't wait to get some Spring JD though when the buds actually form

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[CareStaker]

Ahhh, there it is.

 

[Greensmurf420]

Went ahead and chopped the JD flowers down, she just wasn't really growing anymore. In term of aesthetics it was definitely successful, but in terms of proper bud production, a failure. After running this strain through the winter for 2 years now I know it's not a winter strain, but boy she looked good. Can't wait to get some Spring JD though when the buds actually form

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Beautiful colors for sure! You may not have the bud production you were hoping for but knowing what strains work at different times of the year is priceless information.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Couple things to report I guess, the UD twig is dead, and I harvested the budding mother. Pics later.

So main strains right now are JD, SDD, and SC.

 

[CareStaker]

She sure was beautiful though. Congrats on the harvest. So sorry to hear about UD man

 

[Lester Freeman]

Thanks CS; it's a good reminder that good things never last forever, it was probably the most amazing strain I've ever grown, but these other strains are pretty good too

Here are some pics

The UD mother skeleton, the stems were totally filled up lengthwise with flowers

Here are the UD flowers

Took a pic of some of the recent JD flowers

Also, here is the color progression on the SDD (don't mind the ol' mite scars from her younger days); this pheno is clearly a heavy sativa dominant and pretty darn slow flowering rate (though it is winter..)

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[CareStaker]

Long live UD! Some tasty looking JD though I think I can almost taste them from here...they are sooo purply, the smoke must be tasty.

 

[brightlight]

Very pretty JD buds.

 

[Lester Freeman]

SDD color progression

 

[brightlight]

Reddish purple is at or near the top of most beautiful colors imo. Nicely done.

 

[CareStaker]

I am a sucker for the purps, she's so striking. I don't know if I read it or just always guesed that it was anthocyanin. I've often guessed it's presence was a sign that the plant had a slow down in metabolic rate or needs, and so stored the anthocyanin as excess sugar to recover, if conditions change for the better. In LED applications, I think it's tied to the over excitation of the phytochrome 660nm peak, to which the plant has the same response, as light mediates so many plant functions, especially metabolic ones. So the plant thinks it's going bigger than it is, due to spectrum overdriving, and goes purple due to the overproduction of sugar. Of course, these are just my musings, I haven't read any of this to be true...just assumption and guesses. lol.

 

[Lester Freeman]

I am a sucker for the purps, she's so striking. I don't know if I read it or just always guesed that it was anthocyanin. I've often guessed it's presence was a sign that the plant had a slow down in metabolic rate or needs, and so stored the anthocyanin as excess sugar to recover, if conditions change for the better. In LED applications, I think it's tied to the over excitation of the phytochrome 660nm peak, to which the plant has the same response, as light mediates so many plant functions, especially metabolic ones. So the plant thinks it's going bigger than it is, due to spectrum overdriving, and goes purple due to the overproduction of sugar. Of course, these are just my musings, I haven't read any of this to be true...just assumption and guesses. lol.

Interesting discussion point about the pigmentation, anthocyanin is the correct reason for why the plant turns purple. There are various speculations as to the nature of this, the most prominent being a genetic reasoning; that is, when the plant goes through the changes of flowering, it is evolutionary advantageous to become purple - in order to attract insect pollinators who view our world in a totally different wavelength. Bees, for example, base their vision on higher energy light (towards green, blue, and UV), this is similar in night time pollinators such as moths. When a moth comes across a purple flower top, it glows in contrast to the dark, making it easier to spot during the night. I suspect that when we have a flowering event, the plant responds to "temperature induced pigment production" that coincides with the need to reproduce or spread genes (via dire pollination), as a last resort at repopulation. In other words, an enzyme (protein) is produced from the DNA via temperature induction, which then goes on to catalyze the formation of special pigments (most likely from sugar carbon skeletons)

To clear up a misconception, anthocyanin is not a sugar itself (it's a pigment), but can be covalently linked to sugar (and indeed stored as a sugarized complex).

In contrast to the obvious evolutionary advantage for "going purple", I wonder the advantage of anthocyanin as a electron funnel as compared to chlorophyll in photosynthesis (I'm sure there are published studies). If you monitored the photosynthetic rate of a totally purple plant and compared it to a totally green plant, you could begin to debate about whether purple is a superior energy producer compared to green or not. Just guessing, but because a plant is purple - it means it is absorbing everything BUT purple, and thus the pigments are being excited by less energetic radiation. Comparing to a green plant, which absorbs everything BUT green (it must then be absorbing some high energy near-UV light), I would argue that the more near-UV light the plant can take in (to an extent), the more readily the pigments are excited, and thus increasing the electron funneling capacity and perhaps photosynthetic rate.

Good discussion point, brother

 

[Lester Freeman]

Veggie update. I basically ignored them for a week, they were very thirsty and hungry; took them out for an hour of intermitten sunshine and watered, then fertilized with D&S Step 2, then sprayed for mites with relatively concentrated Azamax. These specimens are looking pretty nice.

Groupies

JD 1

JD 2

SC 1

SC 2

SDD

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[CareStaker]

Interesting discussion point about the pigmentation, anthocyanin i

Good discussion point, brother

Figured we'd talk while we walk. Always appreciate your knowledge of the plant Les, what a great post. Thanks for pointing me in some new directions, to look for some answers to my musings. I had no idea about the pollinators, which really makes me very aware that I've never grown *anything* outside. My state just went Rec, and now that just might be possible. Not in my yard, that would cause a riot, but somewhere lol.

Veggies always look better after a little mistreatment Imo. You musta beat them senseless

 

[Radogast]

Those Swiss Cheese look a lot like my 'white widow,' a very easy plant to grow - very forgiving of overwatering, low temps, etc.

Is your Swiss Cheese forgiving?

 

[Lester Freeman]

Those Swiss Cheese look a lot like my 'white widow,' a very easy plant to grow - very forgiving of overwatering, low temps, etc.

Is your Swiss Cheese forgiving?

Yes sir! Actually its the most forgiving strain I've ever grown! Never had a winter bud grow normally until the SC. Also, these specimens came from clones that were trying to flower. Not many strains can revert with such vigorosity and force.

The specimen when it was first cloned, pretty much nothing but a small patch of pistils and a little bit of leaf, BUT, it did have a lot of lower nodes that I trimmed off, these "open-wounds" were drenched in clonex gel and responded very well to the supplemental mycorrhizae powder. (SC indicated by the arrows)

Nodal explosion (natural monster crop)

After a couple weeks

Further progression

All the way to the ravenous hunger state, I've found that its best to keep them hungry, their metabolism and ability to use energy/nutrients in an efficient manner must certainly come from the strain, and to the particular pheno.

She should respond really well to the recent feed, she's already saying she wants to flower with outpouring of pistils in the sites.

I had originally ordered 10 normal seeds for 25$ in my first seed purchase ever - several years ago. I've had a few different phenos that died off in the past, I was down to the point I had only 2 seeds left one spring a few years ago. One was a male and one was a female. So I cloned the female and been cloning her since. It's probably the 15th generation of continual mother cloning since the original mother, or so, and genetics are still very stable and vigorous/ravenous. The main reason I got this strain was for its purported fungus resistance genetics. Never had a mold problem with SC either, even after getting drenched with 1-2 week rain storms.

Thanks for bringing up the SC, Rado

 

[NorCaliwood]

I tried 'monster cropping' this last grow with clones I took off a flowering Blue City Diesel. They started out looking like it was going to take and I'd have alot of topps,, but didn't turn out as what I was hoping for. Looks like you got afew good topps coming out. I see your still working with the Swiss C. One thing I remember about her was you can't give her enough to eat. I have one going now,,, no matter how much I feed her,, she looks hungry. Good to see your still cranking them out. I go in and have this shit cut out my neck wednesday, and they do alittle robotic looking around in my neck and voice box. We'll see. GL in the gardens and Keepem Green

 

[CareStaker]

I tried 'monster cropping' this last grow with clones I took off a flowering Blue City Diesel. They started out looking like it was going to take and I'd have alot of topps,, but didn't turn out as what I was hoping for. Looks like you got afew good topps coming out. I see your still working with the Swiss C. One thing I remember about her was you can't give her enough to eat. I have one going now,,, no matter how much I feed her,, she looks hungry. Good to see your still cranking them out. I go in and have this shit cut out my neck wednesday, and they do alittle robotic looking around in my neck and voice box. We'll see. GL in the gardens and Keepem Green

Good luck with the Doc, NCW.

 

[Lester Freeman]

I hope everything went OK, brother NW

 

[Lester Freeman]

SDDs in the Sun